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Jamiroquai
"Synkronized" (Work)
If Jason Kay and his compadres did nothing more than slavishly imitate disco and '70s funk, they'd be an interesting curiosity, a time trip to that parallel world where "Saturday Night Fever" happens weekly.
But as was true of the British outfit's previous effort, "Traveling Without Moving," most of the stylized "Synkronized" takes those familiar elements into unexpected places: The congas on "Black Capricorn Day" provide buoyant, carefree contrast to the song's account of a frustrating day in the modern world, and fuzz bass and wah-wah guitar anchor the flighty "Soul Education."
The liquid, slippery grooves are paramount, though they're sometimes buried under mountains of strings and arrangements that are a tad too busy. One other problem: The first single, "Canned Heat," and several other tracks are thinly veiled rewrites of "Virtual Insanity" and the other radio songs from "Traveling."
- Tom Moon,
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Def Leppard
"Euphoria" (Mercury)
After 1996's experimental "Slang" failed to reap the big bucks Def Leppard is accustomed to making, the British pop/metal rockers took notice of the formidable sales of its greatest hits package "Vault" (the 1995 release...